Chapter 19
Once the thumping of Ra's men's footsteps faded into nonexistance, Reacer moaned and pushed herself up with her knees. For a moment she staggered, the immense finality of her weight almost too much for her kneecaps to bear. But, when she gritted her teeth, she was able to spit whatever blood from her mouth she could. A stray patch of her curls slid down her cheek and covered her masked eyes. She closed them and exhaled slowly and quietly.
Reacher was able to push herself far enough up on her knees that she could extend one foot out flat on the ground. Now with most of her weight supported on her leg and not her knee, she positioned the chair so that most of the weight rested on her back. Then, she balanced briefly on her one foot and was able to place her other flat next to her. Back muscles strained and burning with fireballs of pain, she was able to stumble foreward. Now a hunched over ball of vilgiatress, she seated herself directly behind the Commissioner's chair. She shifted her hindquarter's back and the chair hit the ground with a definately smack under her weight. Sweating bullets, she used the heels of her boots to push herself back against Jim's chair.
"See if you can loosen my binds," she whispered to him. He looked part-way over his shoulder and nodded, voice somewhat in disbelief as he replied.
"Alright. Hold still." He began to wiggle his fingers beneath the slack of the ropes and went to work. Reacher shot a look to Ms. Rachel Dawes and Dr. Leslie Thompkins, who both looked frightened, yet determined while the odds were ever against them. She swallowed the frog in her throat.
"We're going to die." the younger girl, Rachel, said quietly, hanging her head. "He's going to kill us."
"Hush now!" Dr. Thompkins hissed at the young woman, "Don't say such things. The Lord will prevail in times of darkness. Light penetrates even the darkest of nights."
A smile tipped up the corner of Reacher's mouth. "I can't get it," Jim exasperated, "It's too tight." Reacher looked around the room and wiggled the binds with her wrist. She looked down to her uniform and blinked at her thigh pouch. She had something to get it untied, but the question was how to get it off her thigh. She furrowed her brow and spoke.
"Once we get out of this," she began, "I want you two off the island," she looked to the doctor and the lawyer. "Batman and I will go after Ra's. Crane is in the city, but that won't matter once we have Ra's under control." Extending her legs as far as they would out in front of her, Reacher slid her bottom down the chair, arms screaming out in pain. She looked to the corner of her chair and then to the bottom-most strap of her pouch. "It's all a matter of getting Ra's into play."
"But how? He doesn't seem like the compromising type." Rachel spat back. "What leverage are you going to use against him?"
Reacher slipped a bit farther down her chair, moving her leg to position the strap over the corner of the chair. "I have a...contact," she began, "that Ghul is rather fond of. Once I have her, he'll comply. I'm sure of it."
"And how do you know that?" Leslie exclaimed defiantly. A chuckle broke through her lips. Finally her strap latched onto to corner, and she pulled her leg up. It slipped over her knee, and then she extended it again, and it slid down her shin and wrapped around her foot. Spinning it so the top of the pouch rested in the cradle of her foot, she crossed her leg over her knee and slipped her foot out of the straps of the pouch. Then she bent and took it in her mouth, resting the bulk of the pack against her shoulder and grabbing the pull-zipper with her teeth. Snaking it across the bag, she pulled the last batarang from the pouch with her teeth and let the pack fall to her lap.
She used her feet to spin the chair and she dropped the tool in Jim's hands. "Use this." She then scooted back up to him and he began to saw at her ropes, and finally the last one broke free with a hard pull. Roughly shaking the binds from her wrists, she got up from her chair and grabbed the tool, cutting Jim's binds free.
She then stopped and smiled at Leslie. "I just know."
Once they were free, she bolted towards the window and looked down. "How high is it?" Gordon asked, pushing by her to get a good look. It was about a twenty foot drop, give or take; much too high for Rachel and Leslie to manage alone; with a target of a full Dumpster precariously chanting out to them from below. Reacher scanned the ground and pressed the comm in her ear.
"You there, crusader?" Please be there, Bruce! she asked diligently. "We've got a situation."
A crackle and then his deep reply. "What situation?"
"Hostages. Dr. Thompkins, Miss Dawes, the Commissioner and myself. You anywhere nearby?" she scanned the area outside, making sure there was cover in case there would be gunfire. "Batman?"
"I'm north of you, about three blocks. Right by Leslie's clinic." He breathed short and raspy on the other end and she wrinkled her brow in concern. "Is Rachel alright? Leslie?"
A twinge of sorrow plagued her heart. "They're fine. Yours truly's suffering from a bloody mouth and a sore chin, but mostly wounded pride," she thouht he'd enjoy her two cents worth of guilt. "Ra's has the buildings guarded I'm sure, but-"
The door to the room cracked open, showing two men dressed in black garb, with a beautiful black-haired woman leading them. They spoke in rapid Tabetan, then burst through the threshold of the room. Reacher whipped around and slapped her elbow into the window, the glass shattering with wicked delight, and she practically began pushing Gordon out the window. "Go! Now! Go, go, go!" Gordon dropped out the window, into the trash, and scrambled out.
Two men charged her and grabbed one of her arms, but she pivoted and lifted her leg, slamming the heel of her boot into his collarbone. He released, and she pivoted again, this time dropping a shoulder and lifting him over her back. She then slammed him into the wall, ducked, and shoved Leslie out the window from her legs. She tumbled out, screamed, and Reacher heard the rustle of garbage bags.
"AHH! Let go!" Reacher spun around, seeing that the other man and seized Rachel, dragging her by an arm and the hair towards the door. Quickly Reacher took off after her, clearing the chairs and using one to spring-board off of. She extended a leg and drop-kicked the man, who shoved Rachel out of the way and into the wall. Reacher pinned into the ground and grabbed at his cheeks with her fingers, tossing a look to Rachel and pointing towards the window.
"Go! Go now!" she screamed. Rachel hustled for the window, tripping over a fallen chair and lamp, then practically lunging for the sill she reached out her arms and pulled herself through. She swung a leg over and leaned halfway out. Reacher watched her go a moment too long, and the man raised a leg and slammed heel into her shoulders. She humphed, slumped forward and the man rocketed a fist into her chin. Shocked and dazed, she slumped off of him and rolled onto the round, cradling her pounding head.
He did not stop there. He rib-shotted her, sending spiking amounts of pain searing up her chest cavity. All the air plunged from her lungs, and she spitted blood from her mouth. It was gooey and slimy, reminding her that the blood was coming faster than it could clot. She rolled onto her back, gasping for breath when she heard a blood-curdling scream erupt from the window. It stopped the man from giving her another rib-shot, and he turned to look over his shoulder. Rachel had retreated back into the room, against the wall, trembling and screaming, tears falling from her eyes.
Reacher could barely make out the figure from the window through blotchy vision, but she heard a snap on the window and boots hit the floor. She squinted her eyes and tried to clear her vision, but only found a blob of blackness approach quickly. The smaller blob, which she assumed to be the ninja attacker, thrusted a hand forward, but the bigger blob dodged the attack. Rachel was screaming and huddling into the corner, and Reacher forced herself up on shaky arms. She was able to gather breath in her lungs and she stumbled for Rachel, one had resting against her wounded ribs. She slumped next to Rachel and pointed towards the window.
"Go. You have to go now," she explained with a rasp, "You don't have much time." Rachel shook her head and placed her hands on Reacher's shoulder.
"No way. You're hurt," she trembled, "I can't leave you here."
"I'm not giving you a choice!" Reacher snapped. She bolted to attention when the ninja came tumbling across the floor, Batman popping back up from his position on the ground. He charged the man, the ninja popping to his feet like a piece of popcorn and using the wall to whip himself passed Batman in a black vision of fury. They combated across the room, all the way to the adjacent wall, and Reacher grabbed Rachel's wrist. She pulled her forward, hunch-running towards the window. She pushed Rachel to it and helped her over the sill. "Get off the island. Get out of Gotham." she hissed. "Get safe."
"What about-"
"-we can handle this!" Reacher shouted, "Now GO!" She gently shoved Rachel off the sill and she went screaming down into the dumpster, where Gordon and Leslie scrambled to help her out of it. Reacher leaned out the window and watched the three of them hurry from the scene, safely. Relief overcame her as Gordon led them around a corner, out of sight and into the awaiting shadows. She exhaled but then sharply moved out of the way, as a chair came sailing towards her.
She leapt into action. Batman was struggling to corner the ninja by the now closed door, where apparently the ninja had whipped the now broken chair towards Batman. They stood, facing each other, taking deep breaths of air, silent. Reacher poised herself next to Batman, watching this attacker with eyes like a predator, trying to possibly anticipate his next move. Batman's glare was deep on this man, who looked between them. They were quiet when heavy boot-falls echoed down the hall. Two more figures appeared into the room-the black haired woman and a strong looking man, with arms as wide as her thighs.
"Bring Azana and the others to me." the woman whispered. She continued, letting her icy gaze sweep over the two before her. "Wonderful to see you've survived my assassins," she cooed lovingly, waltzing in-between the attacker and two vigilante's. "Pity you only survived to meet my pets." She snapped her fingers and a string of men entered the room, carrying large boxes. Batman and Reacher relaxed, and Reacher glanced over her shoulder to only nudge Batman with her elbow. To their dismay the room had silently filled with more assailants, this time each of them armed with samurai's. Three of them held massive SKS' pointed directly at the two vigilante's. Batman gave her a look that read "complacency".
They stood tall, relaxed, and instantly they were seized by the assailants; ever the while the massive guns pointed directly at the back of their heads. Reacher was forced to her knees by the man she'd pinned with a rough jab to her ribs again. Her hands were forced onto her head, and Batman went down next to her, both lowered before this slim, dark haired woman before them. Her lips were painted ruby red with lipstick, her eyes heavily colored with indigo and silver eyeshadow, and her hair was braided into a perfect braid down her back, gracing the back of her knees at the end. She was olive-skinned, Asian looking, with a tattoo of a snake running up her neck and resting at the temple next to her eye. A red stone had been implanted into her skin next to her eye, symbolizing the eye of the serpent.
She directed her next statement to Reacher. "I've heard you fear serpents," she signaled for a man to step forward. "It's a shame, really. They're magnificent creatures." She opened the box the man was holding and reached inside. Carefully and slowly she lifted out a small constrictor, which she wrapped around her next and kissed tenderly on the head. "Isn't she glorious?"
Reacher swallowed a lump in her throat. "You're sick-" Batman began.
A man popped his head into the door. "Miss Ular," he said quietly. "Azana is ready for you. She's getting restless."
The woman, Ular, chuckled and nodded, waving him in once with her hand. "How grand." she looked back to Batman, and then ultimately leveled her gaze on Reacher, who'd locked tight in a frozen position. "I'd like you to meet my pride and joy..."
Reacher gasped as the object of Ular's praise was welcomed inside by the woman. "...Azana."
